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Monday, April 16, 2012

My front yard garden

When looking at photos on my phone last week, I realized that it's only been a year since I started on my front yard garden. Today was my only free day this week, and it rained yesterday, so the ground is too wet to plant anything. Instead, I decided to document what's growing in my front yard today.

This was my front yard during our massive remodel. April 2, 2010
We moved in in November 2010, but couldn't decide what to do with the yard. The soil in my front yard is black Texas clay. It's dense and full of limestone. Mine has a pH of 8.2 and almost no nitrogen.

This is the photo that reminded me that it was only a year ago that I started on my garden. Here, I'd just had a Chinese Privet removed from the corner of the house. The birds, especially the Cedar Waxwings, loved the berries on the privet, but it was scraggly and is considered by the state of Texas to be invasive. Adios, privet! May 4, 2011

This was just after I convinced my husband to let me build my Texas cottage garden. All it took was "You'll never have to mow, " and he was on board. I started putting up a little black iron fence and laying down my pathways. Those large rocks lining the pathway are the limestone I dug up as I planted. May 13, 2011

This is the front yard today. It's still a work in progress, of course. A garden that's finished is dead. My garden is a collection of plants I've purchased, plants I've started from seed, plants I've propagated, and pass-along plants I've received from others. I'm thinking another three to four years and the garden will begin to mature into the garden I've dreamed about. Until then, I'm going to enjoy the ride and learn from experience.

I cannot even begin to express how I love spending time in the garden with my hands and knees covered in soil. Regardless of how difficult the task, it never feels like work.

We have such a short spring here in Texas that I'm just relishing this brief time before the crazy heat is upon us. Last year's heat and drought was horrible all over the United States. Here in Fort Worth, we suffered though 70 days over 100°! This spring God has blessed us with rain, lots of rain. All this rain will hopefully help my new plantings develop strong roots before the summer heat arrives. I've filled my front yard with native and adapted plants, with a few exceptions, like those Sweet Peas above. The vast majority are perennials, some evergreen, some semi-evergreen, and some herbaceous. Last spring, I installed drip irrigation in these beds and I lost very few plants.

Snowberry Clearwing Moth on my Pavonia last spring

This morning, I walked through the garden and listed everything I have growing in the front yard. Some of these things are very small, having just been planted, and some have happily returned from last year. I'm including the list below for my records.

Once summer arrives, I'm sure I'll be spending more time inside in the sewing room. My sewing room looks out into the shady side of my garden where I keep the birds well fed and watered and they return the favor by letting me enjoy their antics through the windows. I just love this time of year!

The lesson I have thoroughly learnt, and wish to pass on to others,is to know the enduring happiness that the love of a garden gives.- Gertrude Jekyll

It's gorgeous- I'd love to have one myself! I also live in Texas and I've fallen in love with a lot of those Texas native plants. They make the yard look so nice and are so hardy! My favorite plants in my yard are the loropetalum and sweet potato vine...I have a thing for purple foliage.

THANKS for the list. I will be referring to it when I finally get a little more space culled out for planting (out motto is more grow and less mow). We are nearby and I trust your plant choices. We've only been here a year and a half...oh wait, we moved in Nov. of 2010 too....you are waaaay ahead of me. Poo.

Your garden is wonderful! I am in Celina - North of Frisco - and I love to expand my herb garden a bit each year. I hope to have take over the whole front yard by the end of 2013. Hubby is on board...no mowing!

I'm in rockwall, east of dallas ...love your garden. it's lovely now, and will just continue to grow and fill in. I'm like you ... I so enjoy toodling around in the garden, trimming and fertilizing and watering and weeding, moving plants around, planning what to plant next. It's the best!